The Original Single Malt From India

Tag Archives: Amrut Cask Strength

Our Fourth and final festival of the year took us to Manchester , The venue was the Bridgewater Hall in the Centre of town , quite a modern venue and the area was quite spacious . By now we were getting the hang of setting up the table…..

(Click on the photos to see full size)

We had the same offerings as the previous festivals ( Amrut 46% , Amrut Cask Strength , Amrut Peated 46% , Fusion and Intermediate Sherry Matured along with the two token drams , Single Cask Bourbon and Peated Port Pipe) .

Our Location in the Hall .

This was to be the busiest festival of the four , 750 punters expected through the door !

The Gorgeous Melanie waiting for the Hordes……

Once again the day flew over and once again there were lots of new people to introduce to the delights of India’s finest Single Malt Whisky and i have to say most were quite impressed and very surprised by the quality of the product ! By the end of the day i think the ISM had just pipped the Fusion for the most popular Amrut .

Other Whiskies were available…….

The 2nd best Table at the Show , after ours….. the Berry Bros stall manned by my good friend Rob Whitehead , all round good guy and purveyor of Fine Drams !

So that’s it for this year , Hopefully we’ve done a good job for Amut over these Festivals , we’ve thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and had a great time , Cheers for now !

So after Liverpool , we headed off to York for the Yorkshire Whisky Festival , the Venue was the Race Course……

Under Starters Orders

A rather nice setting in the stand to the right , we arrived at about 11am and set up at our allotted table

Melanie ready for the off…..

Once again we had the Amrut 46% , Amrut Cask Strength , Amrut Peated 46% , the Fusion and the Intermediate Sherry . The White dram was the Single Cask Bourbon and the Black dram was the Single Cask Peated Port Pipe .

The Calm before the storm

Once again the Fusion and Sherry provided to be very popular , We had a great day at the Races , the crowd were fantastic and the venue superb , light , airy and plenty of space , plenty of places for the punters to sit down with a dram including a nice terrace at the front and the stand at the front looking across the course . Many thanks for all the kind words and the great craic !

After the success (i hope !) of our adventure behind the table at Newcastle , Ashok asked us if we would do 3 of The Whisky Lounges other festivals so here is our second session behind the table…….

The Liverpool Festival is our second venue , we headed off south at the crack of dawn , there is only one problem heading that way at the moment , Roadworks ! They are upgrading part of the A1 into a motorway and making part of the M62 into a “Super Motorway” (whatever that is….) , after a stop off for Breakie we arrived at Liverpool in plenty of time to set up . The Venue was a bit of a strange one , The Crypt Hall of the Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral , The Cathedral is known locally as “Paddys Wigwam”…..

Don’t know where they got that from……

I have to say the Crypt is a pretty impressive place to hold a whisky Festival……

The Calm before the storm !

So we set up our little table and waited for the masses , this time we meant business , we had 2 Banners !

We had the same lineup of drams as Newcastle……

Amrut Single Malt 46%

Amrut Peated Single Malt 46%

Amrut Single Malt Cask Strength 61.8%

Amrut Fusion 50%

Amrut Intermediate Sherry Matured 57.1%

Amrut Single Cask – Bourbon #3446 62.8% (White Token Dram)

Amrut Single Cask – Port Pipe Peated #2714 (Black Token Dram)

The two most popular drams of the day were the Sherry and the Fusion , but we did set a new record for ourselves with the Black drams , we got up to 8 ! We still trailed a long way behind a certain Mr Dunn but we’re getting there !

It’s amazing how many people have never heard of Amrut but they certainly have now and a lot of people are certainly impressed with the Quality ! After 5 hectic hours We headed off to a hotel to lie down in a darkened room and look forward to the next one !

The Big whisky event of the year in Newcastle is the Annual (6 so far) Whisky Lounge Newcastle Whisky Fest , This year i would be seeing it from a different perspective , from the other side of the table !

Ashok would be away ‘Down Under’ converting the Antipodeans to the Amrut Way and he asked me if i would step into his shoes and host the Amrut table at the Fest , how could i refuse !!! After the prep talk and collection of stock just before Ashoks departure , it was just a wait till the day of our ( i’d talked Melanie into helping out by now….) maiden appearance at a whisky show .

It was an early start on the morning , after loading the car it and getting to the Civic Centre Car Park , it was time for a Hearty breakfast at the Five Swans ! got to get your priorities right…… On arriving in the Banqueting Hall we were greeted by Amanda (Eddies better half) and shown to our table and down to the serious business of setting up our display……

I think we made a pretty good effort for our first go !

So it was just a case of waiting for the doors to open and the hordes to descend , say hello to a few fellow exhibitors (it was great to see Yolanda on this side of the country on the Bladnoch table) and pose for a piccy with our handy work……

The Amruts we had on offer were -

Amrut Single Malt 46%

Amrut Peated Single Malt 46%

Amrut Single Malt Cask Strength 61.8%

Amrut Fusion 50%

Amrut Intermediate Sherry Matured 57.1%

Amrut Single Cask – Bourbon #3446 62.8% (White Token Dram)

Amrut Single Cask – Port Pipe Peated #2714 (Black Token Dram)

So at 12pm the doors opened and the first of the 700 punters enter and boy was it busy ! Right from the word go , there were lots of familiar faces and from the questions lots of new customers to the whisky experience . Quite a lot of the newbies were surprised there was a malt whisky from India and even more that there were 2 exhibiting here (Paul John was a couple of tables down from us ) , i’m glad to say all were highly surprised at how good the quality was of the Amrut product !!! After the initial shock of finding that Malt Whisky was produced in India the most commonest question was where is the distillery ? And how do they do the Peated one ? all of which we was willing to answer .

Melanie was well in the groove by now……

The Intermediate Sherry was an early Favourite , infact it was the first to depart the table ! It was great to see people just not going for set ones but being willing to try their way through the range and the Peated one being very popular with Islay fans . At one point word seemed to get around that the Fusion was an excellent dram (what we and Jim Murray already knew !) and there was a hell of a rush on it ! Going off peoples comments it’ll be interesting to see how it done in the dram of the day Competition . During the afternoon there weren’t many lulls in the crowd but we did find time to pose again……

The afternoon did fly over , it was great to spread the Amrut word and talk to fellow whisky drinkers about one of my passions , The Gorgeous Melanie was outstanding all afternoon – I was so proud of her ! The one thing that did come out of the afternoon was just how much Ashok will be missed when he returns to India , You are one popular man Ashok and lots of the visitors passed on their best wishes to you !

Some of the many visitors to the table , It was nice of Livvy to bring along her Grandad Bobby……. :-)

We had an absolutely Wonderful day , thank you Ashok for the opportunity to do it ! We wrapped our gear away and headed into town for a well deserved drink and bite to eat with Livvy …….

The end of 2013 saw the release of the Amrut Single Cask Series , it consisted of 3 types of cask – Bourbon , PX Sherry and Port Pipe – this one is the Bourbon……

(click to see full size)

Amrut have provided a lot of information on the label for these releases……

Cask Type / Cask Number – Bourbon / 3437

Malt Type – Unpeated Indian Barley

Date of Filling – June 2009

Date of Bottling – August 2013

Total Maturation Loss – 42%

Bottle Number – 101 / 168

ABV – 62.8%

It also states that this one was an Exclusive Bottling for Europe .

I was originally given Cask #3441 to try so it’ll be interesting to see how Cask #3437 fairs up against it……..

Again a lovely ‘Golden Syrup’ colour in the glass (lovely oily legs as well) , for 62%+ the nose is quite relaxed , a really fresh feel to it , bags of vanilla , malt , spices , millionaires shortbread and the Amrut Liquorice . This is definitely one of them malts you could smell for a very long time……. But we won’t at the moment , so onto the palate , again liquorice of the Amrut variety , spices including a huge wallop of cloves , chocolate , malt , digestive biscuits , a very complex malt ! The finish is superbly long , spices , vanilla , a great heat and incredibly chewy ! If you are a fan of Amrut seek this out ! If you’ve never tried Amrut , seek this out , if it doesn’t make you a fan i’ll be very surprised !

It is a very close thing between this and the Port one for which is my favourite , i think the Port one just shades it due to the fact that i was very surprised i liked it! These Single Cask Bottlings are Amrut at it’s best , they show that a great deal of time and thought has went into selecting the finest casks to put their spirit into , you also need an excellent spirit to start with and they’ve done both superbly , long may it continue !

The end of 2013 saw the release of the Amrut Single Cask Series , it consisted of 3 types of cask – Bourbon , PX Sherry and Port Pipe – this one is the Port Pipe……

(click to see full size)

Amrut have provided a lot of information on the label for these releases……

Cask Type / Cask Number – Portpipe / 2713

Malt Type – Peated Barley

Date of Filling – June 2009

Date of Bottling – August 2013

Total Maturation Loss – 45%

Bottle Number – 031 / 346

ABV – 59%

It also states that this one was an Exclusive Bottling for Europe .

This is the same Cask that i was kindly given a sample of by Ashok , so instead of reposting the old notes lets see what it’s like now that it’s been bottled !

A lovely Ruby Red Colour, Straight away the peatiness hits you accompanied by the fruitness of the port , there’s also chocolate and caramel lurking in there with Cherry liqueur and spices , i think the best way to describe the nose is a Spiced peaty fruitiness ! I love the nose but the Pièce de résistance is the palate , a multi layered sensory delight ! An incredible peatiness with dark fruit jam on top of Cherry liqueur sprinkled with a variety of spices . The Port Cask and the peated spirit are in perfect harmony , great balance , the finish to this is really long , peaty , sweet and spicy ! I was really surprised by this when i first tried it , i wasn’t a big fan of port , whether fully matured or finished , but this is exceptional , this works perfect with the peated spirit . it is a real palate pleaser !!!

Seems ages since i last posted tasting notes for new Amrut releases but the wait is certainly worth it !

We have 3 New Single Cask releases , one from an Ex-Bourbon , One from an Ex-Port Pipe and One from an Ex-Pedro Ximinex Cask…….

Ex -Bourbon Cask No.3441

Dist June 2009

Bottled August 2013

A lovely Golden colour in the glass , The nose is classic Amrut , Malty , Digestive Biscuit , Caramel toffee , chocolate ( read Millionaires Shortbread for the last 3 ) and of course Liquorice . There’s also a hint of tropical fruits in the mix , delightful ! This one fair dances across the palate , loads of oak spices playing with the malt and liquorice , a stunning mouthfeel ! The finish is quite long again with spices and Millionaires shortbread and an incredible chewiness , This one does not disappoint !!!! Amrut at it’s finest !

Ex-Port Pipe Cask No.2713

Dist June 2009

Bottled August 2013

The odd one out of the 3 as it’s Peated . Ruby Red in colour , At first the peatiness is subdued by the fruitiness of the Port , A bag of mixed dark fruits , plums and blackberry jelly spring to mind , eventually there is a waft of peat and if you wait long enough (if you can!) the glass is eventually filled to the brim with a smoky peatiness . The palate is REALLY peaty and not as fruit filled as i was expecting , there is fruit there (again of the dark variety) but i think this is the peatiest Amrut i’ve ever had . The finish is long and peaty with plum jam , the cask and the peated spirit really go well together in this one , both interplay well with each other and neither dominate , very good balance , another ace bottling !

Ex-Pedro Ximinex Cask No.2702

Dist June 2009

Bottled August 2013

The colour of Golden Syrup, the Amrut Liquorice is the first thing that grabs your attention on the nose , then it intermixes with the dried fruits ( raisins and sultanas ) , glace cherries and cake dough of your traditional Christmas cake ! The palate at first is dark chocolate and glace cherries then the liquorice and shortbread biscuit come through . There is also a hint of cherry liqueur , The finish is very dry and long , and almost liquid christmas cake . Again incredible balance between the spirit and cask and another thoroughly enjoyable Amrut !

3 stunning casks , worthy of the Amrut name , many thanks to Ashok for the samples .